One day, before we left for Bangalore, Mary and Lakshmi were cutting up leaves from a plant in the garden. It is called Love's Lettuce ...

I just read that the word 'Bollywood' (etymology: Bombay + Hollywood, referring to Indian films) will be included in the new editio...

There is an interesting article in Sunday's The Hindu newspaper about Ganjifa, traditional Indian playing cards. I love the idea that ...

So much of India is preoccupied with getting enough water. We're waiting for the monsoon, which is overdue to hit the west coast. Ever...

I just came back from two weeks in Bangalore's balmy weather. It was 108 degrees in Chennai on the day we left, and went up to 114(the ...

I will be camping in the mofussil until June 7. You can find me at the dak bungalow. Or leave a message with the khidmatgar .

Gowri Ramnarayan, in today's The Hindu , reviews several books of poetry, opening with this, on hot-season diversions from her childhood...

Someone I know went to Bombay for a visit, and reported back: Everyone in Bombay goes out for dinner. Then they go to Muchhad (pron. MOOCH...

A man carrying a long pole with a metal loop on the end told Bahadur that he was a cat catcher, and Bahadur let him inside the gate without ...

photo by Ramesh Gandhi Today is the birthday of Gautama Buddha, which is celebrated on the full moon in the month of Vaishakh. Here are two...

A couple of days ago I posted two akam (interior) poems from A. K. Ramanujan's Poems of Love and War . The second major category of Sa...

As I was reading the blogs that I read, I found a beautiful visual juxtaposition. First, on Portage , this image from the British Library...

I decided to post some pictures from my vacation. I just had them developed, though I took them in December. I wanted to shoot in black an...

There’s a cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal, about 600 km east southeast of Chennai. It’s supposed to begin raining here on Wednesday aft...

I’m dipping in and out of A. K. Ramanujan’s Poems of Love and War , a selection of Tamil poems written between 100 BC to AD 250. The poems...

Public Call Office, C P Ramaswamy Road, Chennai In another part of the city, we sit in the bar at the Adyar Park hotel. The audible voices ...

After I posted an article about Neelambai , a hijra / eunuch who was killed in Delhi recently, I started hunting around for information abo...

I was reading some things about translation – at woods lot and open brackets . And thinking of my own poor attempts to communicate here, n...

from Amar Chitra Katha

From the New Indian Express : Mercury touches 40°C in Chennai CHENNAI: For the past three days, Chennai has been feeling the heat. With the ...